"Attention all participants, there's only one minute left until the competition ends! When the concluding whistle sounds, please put down your fishing rods and remain seated while the staff tallies the results!"
Countdown 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, the competition is over!"
The whistle sounded, Zhang Yang lifted his rod at the last second but it came up empty, then casually placed the rod back on the stand.
This fishing session nearly drove Zhang Yang to nervous exhaustion. With high mental focus, the fish biting signals were weak and slow, causing him to fear missing any move.
After a session of fishing, Zhang Yang's net contained a total of nineteen fish, not even breaking the twenty-fish mark.
As the competition wrapped up, Zhang Yang breathed a sigh of relief.
The fish situation was indeed terribly poor, but Zhang Yang at least caught some fish, which was a lot better than many others on the field who caught none.
To say nothing else, just as the whistle ending the competition sounded, five or six anglers from the same group stood up from their fishing spots to pack things and leave early.
According to the competition rules, you're not allowed to get up and run around before the results are tallied. This result can only mean one thing, that these five or six people realized they had no chance of placing after the last session, and chose to forfeit.
From the side, the staff began lifting nets one by one to count the catches. Zhang Yang tilted his head to glance, seeing that the anglers' catches were extremely poor,
With the most having ten or eight small crucian carp, and the least having a mere three to five fish. In the four rounds of competition, the speed of tallying the count outpaced the neighboring mixed-species pit's weight statistics for the first time.
It was Zhang Yang's turn, and soon his net was lifted.
Seeing the noticeably greater number of fish at the bottom of Zhang Yang's net, the young staff member couldn't help but be somewhat surprised.
"Whoa! You caught quite a bit!"
Zhang Yang looked up at him and replied with a smile, "Quite a bit? Your joke is a little overboard!"
"Uh, I mean you caught more than others! In the southwest corner, number one big side only got 12 fish; you should have over twenty, right?" the staff explained.
"Do me a favor and count, I can't remember!"
One, five, ten, fifteen, twenty; within a few seconds, the number of 19 fish was tallied.
"If I'm not mistaken, you should clinch one point in the last session! Even the east big side didn't catch as many as you!"
"Thanks for your words! Where do I sign once the numbers are counted?"
"Here, after signing, you can pack up to leave!"
Zhang Yang quickly signed his name, skillfully packed his fishing gear, and left the fishing field with his tackle box.
After leaving the venue, athletes who had finished the competition were already gathering outside in small groups. It can be said that after the fourth session, the atmosphere was one of lament.
The unusually low fish situation shattered the dreams of many anglers who still harbored hopes for a good result, and the first thing they asked a familiar fishing friend when greeting was whether anyone got skunked.
If you managed to cast, you already surpassed a third of your group, and if you had just a few more fish, a total as low as a single-digit catch could earn you a decent score.
While Zhang Yang was outside smoking a cigarette, Liu Zi and Meng Fan came out as well.
"How did your mixed-species fishing go?" Zhang Yang asked casually.
"Okay, when signing, I saw that most of their catch weighed less than mine!" Meng Fan nodded in response.
"I did alright too, caught four fish, each over a pound!"
Liu Zi was in good spirits as well, and his tone carried a hint of pride when reporting his catches.
"Four fish weighing over four pounds in total? Nice!" Zhang Yang was a bit surprised to hear Liu Zi's results.
Liu Zi leaned over and whispered to Zhang Yang, "Couldn't catch them by mouth, followed your advice and switched to big hooks to snag them!"
"Well, whether it's a black cat or a white cat, catching fish makes it a good cat! Let's go, let's load up the gear and wait for the competition results!"
There was still some time before the results were posted, Zhang Yang and the two left the gear in the car and didn't rush under the podium; instead, the trio got into Zhang Yang's van, opened the windows, smoked, and discussed the last session.
"For the last mix-species session, I used the tactic Zhang Yang mentioned before the competition — small hook, thin line, small bait to catch in-transit interfaces!"
The carp's bite was so light, only after setting the line to 0.15 did I see the bite!"
The line being thick, you could only see a slight pause during transit, they just couldn't swallow it!" Meng Fan couldn't help but exclaim.
"Uh! You caught them by mouth, Meng Fan?" Liu Zi was slightly surprised, thinking Meng Fan had snagged the fish too.
"Yeah, is there a problem? The spot I was fishing at showed bites about four to five centimeters from the bottom, with a tiny pause in the bobber's transit on the bottom. Never could connect properly, I switched to thinner line and the bites appeared!" Meng Fan explained clearly.
"What about you? How was it over there?" Meng Fan asked in response.
Liu Zi scratched his head, sounding a bit uncertain, "Initially, I used heavy lead to find the fish layer but didn't see any clear bites.
Thinking of the last session, I went for it and switched to big hooks, thin line, adjusted low, and high snagged. All four fish were snagged!"
"No way, how could there be no bites? We were using jelly bait, the fish ate quite well!" Meng Fan shook his head repeatedly.
Despite Meng Fan's mixed-species total weight in the fourth session being just over four pounds, his catch included seven fish, which in terms of results wasn't much better than Liu Zi, but he was way beyond Liu Zi in fish analysis and adaptability, at least a grade stronger.